darkredd (darkredd) wrote in fantasywriters, @ 2007-08-15 22:59:00 |
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Current mood: | exanimate |
Violence in Fantasy and other Literature
I've been thinking about violence in fiction lately. Has some spoilers for Kill Bill.
In Quintin Tarantino's Kill Bill 1&2, Beatrix's quest for vengeance is portrayed as glorious and righteous, and I bought it. During the infamous fight scene where Beatrix butchers the Crazy 88 (a Yakuza boss's katana-wielding private army) the audience and I were rooting for her all the way. I didn't even consider, at the time, that the people Beatrix hacked apart had hopes and dreams of their own. However, when I read similar violence in a novel, it doesn't work the same way. Everything seems deeper. Why is this?
For some reason, when I'm reading a book, it occurs to me that the many of the 'evil' soldiers don't necessarily deserve to die; they were probably conscripted, dragged away from their homes unwillingly, and yet the protagonists kill them off gleefully. No one cares, and chances are no one ever will. It does not necessarily hurt my sympathy for the characters, but I still can't help but confront these feelings. Perhaps it's just an aversion to the very concept of war, and nothing to do with the story. However, I cannot help but question the ideals of authors who would gladly throw the lives of the thousands of faceless "bad guys" simply because the heroes are the "chosen ones."
This is why I've gone to some lengths to keep this out of my WiP. There, all of the nameless grunts are zombies, whose only hope for redemption is final death. In this case, killing them is a gift. But what about human enemies? How do you know that they deserve to die? Maybe one of them is a father, who just wants to return to his family. This squeamishness bothers me in writings all the way up from Paolini to Tolkien. It's only when the writer gives warfare the terrible respect it deserves (See George RR Martin) that I don't feel it.